Fifa’s presidential candidates weigh in on China’s attempts to become a football power and host the World Cup
Is Xi Jinping’s grandiose vision realistic? Will the country one day host the World Cup? Here is what the candidates had to say
On Friday, football’s powerbrokers meet to elect a new president for Fifa, the world governing body that has been embroiled in a corruption scandal since police arrested several key figures on the eve of the last election, in May 2015.
Since then, president Sepp Blatter has been suspended for eight years (though he is appealing). His successor will likely be Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, the Bahraini head of the Asian Football Confederation, who has been dogged by allegations of human rights abuses under his watch (he denies them).
His main rival is Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino, only standing because his boss Michel Platini was also suspended over the same ‘disloyal payment’ that felled Blatter.
Other candidates are Jordanian Prince Ali bin al-Hussein and Blatter’s former right-hand man Jerome Champagne. Though South African Tokyo Sexwale is also standing, he is seen as less than a no-hoper even by his own FA.
Over the past few weeks, the South China Morning Post posed questions to the four realistic candidates about the future of the organisation, with particular interest in their thoughts on China’s attempts to become a world football power. Here are their collected replies.
How important is China to world football?
